Saturday, June 23, 2012

Sermon for Trinity4 July 1, 2012

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Mercy. It’s a much criticized
and often misunderstood word. We normally use the word to refer to not giving a
guilty party the punishment he deserves. The word evokes, for instance, images
of prisoners in the Tower of London asking their Sovereign to spare them out of
mercy. However, the opening words of today’s Gospel lesson—“Be merciful, even as Your Father is merciful”– have more depth
than our common use of the word “mercy.”
It is not the same word used in ourKyrie, “Lord,
have mercy.” Indeed, here we have a word for “mercy” that is used twice in this Gospel lesson, but nowhere else
in all four Gospels. It could be translated “pity,” “compassion,” or even “heartfelt compassion.” Tracing it
through the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit today will help us
understand the mercy of the Triune God toward us and our mercy for our
neighbor. “Be merciful, even as Your
Father is merciful.”

The word “mercy”
describes God’s compassion in the OT, especially the Psalms. In Psalm 86, David
prayed for God’s mercy, saying, “But
you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in
steadfast love.” David prays nearly identical words in Psalm 103:8 and
Psalm 145:8. The composite picture from these three Psalms is a God who is gracious,
granting His people everything that they need to support this body and life. He
is also merciful, showing sympathy or pity to His people, slow to be angry and
quick to forgive. Similarly, St. Paul uses the word in 2 Corinthians to
describe God as “the Father of mercies
and God of all comfort.” Again, we see that mercy is paired with a similar
trait that helps us understand God’s mercy. He is the Father or source of
mercies and the God of all comfort, for He alone comforts us in every need.
Finally, the lack of mercy for the impenitent is described in Hebrews 10, where
we read that “Anyone who has set aside
the law of Moses dies without mercy.” God is by nature merciful and
gracious, but those who hate His commandments will lose God’s mercy to the
third and fourth generation of those who hate Him. In view of God’s merciful
and gracious character, Jesus says to imitate the mercy of the Father in your
daily living. Do not judge or condemn. That is to say, do not take it upon
yourselves to be God. You may call fellow sinners to repentance, judging their
outward breaking of the Ten Commandments. But leave judging the heart and
condemning the soul to God alone. Moreover, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Drop dead to one another’s
sins, just as God the Father dropped dead to your sins on the cross. As we pray
in the Fifth Petition, “Forgive us our
trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Along the same
lines, “Forgiveness will be given to
you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put
into your lap.” God the Father is merciful and gracious, slow to anger,
abounding in steadfast love. He is the Father of forgiveness, mercy, and grace.
He has given us all His gifts by faith in the suffering Messiah. The excess,
the “extra” forgiveness, spills over
our laps and flows to our neighbor. That’s what David means in the Psalms by
God “abounding in steadfast love.” He
has enough love, mercy, and grace for all men, with plenty to spare. By His
grace, you are merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

As it goes for the Father, so it goes for the Son. St.
Luke only this unique word for “mercy”
only here (6:36), but the concept of pity or compassion from Jesus is laced
throughout Luke’s Gospel. Consider, for instance, the Gospel lessons from the
last three Sundays. In the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (16:19-31, Trinity
I), the rich man refused to share the abundance of his wealth with poor
Lazarus, painting a portrait of one who will die by Moses’ Law if he does not
repent. Yet God showed compassion to poor Lazarus who, though a beggar in this
life, received the reward of being in Abraham’s bosom. In the Banquet Parable,
many rejected the King’s offer of mercy by refusing His feast. However, after
sending His servants into the “red light”
district and eventually to the outer highways, the King’s hall was filled with
guests. Here mercy is expressed in table fellowship with Jesus, who dines with
repentant outcasts. In last Sunday’s Gospel lesson, the Good Shepherd was
compassionate enough to leave 99 sheep in order to seek and save the lost. The
woman who lost the coin swept her house with the broom of the Gospel to bestow
her pity upon the lost. In short, mercy or compassion is the way of Christ in
Luke’s Gospel, and it is the way of all who are in Christ.

No wonder Jesus describes the relationship between the
student and the teacher as one being like the other. “Everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” According
to the custom of the day, students developed a father-son type relationship
with their teacher or Rabbi. Perhaps some of you have heard of the phrase “doctoral father” in European academia.
The word “doctor” means teacher,
which, paired with the word “father,”
suggests a love, fruitful, and productive relationship between teacher and
student. Applied to Christ and His disciples, the essence of being like the
Teacher directs us to the cross. Christ was willing to leave His heavenly home,
to die for the sake of the right doctrine and confession, and to go to the
cross for all sins of all men. He bid all of His disciples to take up their
cross and follow Him, even to death. In the book of Acts, Jesus’ followers
became like their Teacher, working miracles of compassion, teaching that Jesus
was the Son of God, and suffering all, even crucifixion in some cases, for the
sake of the Gospel. What does it mean for
you, the faithful students of theology, to be like your Heavenly Teacher?
To share the compassion of Christ with your neighbor, even if it means “suffering all, even death”(Confirmation
Rite) for the sake of Him who had compassion on us and shed His blood for us.

As it goes for the Son, so it goes for the Holy Spirit.
The word “mercy” at the beginning of
our Gospel lesson is used by St. Paul to describe the work of the Holy Spirit
in the life of the believer. In Romans, St. Paul says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present
your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.” God has had
mercy on us, forgiven us, and sanctified us. Therefore, you are a living
sacrifice of praise, in body and soul. In Philippians 2:1-2, St. Paul says, “So if there is any . . . affection and
mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind.” In other words, live out
the fruits of the Spirit in your daily lives. Have the mind of Christ among
you, the mindset of Him who came not to be served, but to serve, and to give
His life as a ransom for many. In Colossians 3:12, St. Paul admonished the
church to “Put on them, as God’s chosen
ones, holy and beloved, mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.”
This is the language of baptism. In baptism, you have put on Christ. You wear
the robe of His own righteousness. Continue to wear the fruits of the Spirit as
your daily dress, including mercy or compassion for your neighbor. In short,
mercy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, Christ in action through you to carry
God’s mercy to the world.

So Jesus spells out
exactly how this mercy goes in motion. Are
you obsessed with the speck in your brother’s eye? Repent! Take out the log
in your own eye before you call your neighbor to repentance. How can you call your neighbor to repentance
if you yourself are not repentant? Repentance, then, is the beginning of
the holy life of sharing the compassion of Christ with our neighbor. Through
repentance and faith, the Holy Spirit shows us the depth of God’s love for us.
In the Lord’s Supper, He reminds us of all that Jesus’ suffered for us. Nourished
by His body and blood, the Holy Spirit sends us back to our daily lives to
share the compassion of Christ with our neighbor. No wonder this Gospel lesson
is followed by Jesus’ teaching on the fruits of the Spirit. “The good person out of the good treasure
of his heart produces good fruit” (6:45). Or, in a previous image, a good
tree bears the good fruits (6:43) of repentance, faith, and holy living, taking
the compassion of Christ Himself into the world.

Finally, it is worth noting that the word “mercy” in this Gospel Lesson usually
appears as a plural noun to express the manifold mercies of God in our daily
lives. He is merciful at all times, from protecting us in the womb to guarding
our bodies in the grave. He is merciful in all places, from the safety of our
home to the imminent danger of death. He is merciful to all people, from the
lifelong saint to the most impenitent sinner. In short, here we see the good
news that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is merciful to us. And, having
received the gifts of His mercy, He works through us to share that mercy with
our neighbor. Perhaps the post-Communion prayer puts it best: “We beseech You that of Your mercy You
wouldst strengthen us through the same in faith toward You and in fervent love
toward one another.” Amen.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.